HCCA finally catches up with their website.

I see the HCCA has finally gotten around to make some changes to their website that needed to happen as I set out here. The main change has to be the imprint which has finally been changed from Peter Brown to Simon Burton.

I do have to wonder whether I'm doing the Conservatives job for them! Well if I am, there is another problem the St Neots Conservative website has a whole host of problems.

Firstly, there is the imprint. As with the the HCCA the imprint still says Peter Brown.

The other is why is Catherine Hutton missing from the County Councillors website?

If the St Neots Conservatives aren't going to continue updating this website what is the point of it?

The Conservative Alternative Part Deux

In the ever excellent News and Crier there a couple of letters from the Conservatives Town Councillors. One is from Leader of the Opposition, Jennifer Bird and one from Barry Chapman.

The first letter is from Jennifer Bird. Having read through this I would like to know the following:

• Does her stance on the so-called bodge-up job of the Eaton Socon Church Car Park mean that a future Conservative run Town Council would use Taxpayers money for a church car park?
• You say unexpected items of obviously occurs. So how much would you put by as a contingency?
• Income from letting of the ECC is an estimate. What is your estimate?
• The Priory Centre gets a subsidy. In the budget just passed this subsidy was increased by £11.5k. Contrary to your letter, the Priory Centre in 2008/09 under shot its budget by £85,000. With this undershooting do you still feel this budget is not enough?

Lastly, I disagree with your statement that the Liberal Democrats have made the decision to close the public toilets. These facilities are owned and run by HDC and it is HDC which decided to end this service. All Jennifer Bird is doing is defending her Conservative Party colleagues decision on HDC to try and introduce a Conservative Stealth Tax on St Neots.

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Onwards with Cllr Barry Chapman and his letter.

With Barry's letter I have some sympathy and agree with some of what he is saying. Where I differ is over the new residents in the annexed areas for 1/4/10. The residents in the area annexed from Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish had every right to get their Parish Council to provide these facilities. Their Parish Council didn't. The residents paid zero in the parish portion of their Council tax. The SNTC average was £87.55. I feel it is wrong for the hard pressed SNTC taxpayer to pick up this tab for these residents. Apparently, Cllr Barry Chapman does thinks this is alright.

If Cllr Chapman wants more information on what EHPC didn't do he should contact his colleagues, Cllr Ursell and Cllr C. Hutton. Bob Barnes (letter in about Church Car Park) was Chairman of EHPC. He should be a good source of information.

Where I feel Cllr Chapman missed his attack is on Cllrs Giles and Thorpe 2008/09 casino budget. The reason SNTC is having to raid the windfall is the mess these two made of the finances of SNTC during their reign. The public toilets closure is clearly a Conservative HDC decision. The Church car park is again a waste of taxpayer's money and should be paid by the church.

In my opinion this budget is a fair reflection of the running costs of SNTC. I feel it is deficient in not having a capital budget which will cause problems in the future. I feel the Conservatives have not come up with a clear alternative to this budget.

Getting a raw deal?

The by-election which James Clark refers to in his letter in the Hunts Post was the non-election which got me onto the St Neots Community Forum. The reason I started was this was a by-election and I wanted to know about the issues before voting.
I received a leaflet from Stevie-v but nothing from the Conservative candidate James Clark. I even e-mailed the Conservative Office as I had received a letter regarding my postal vote. I wrote:
"I have just received your letter regarding my postal ballot at the forthcoming by election. In your letter you state that "You should now have received my first election leaflet.....". Well, I haven't and I'm not voting for you until I actually get a leaflet."


I did receive a reply and this said:
"I am forwarding your email on to James Clark who is standing for the Conservatives at the By-election of 18 December.  Please accept out apologies for our error in not sending you the leaflet. Kind regards. Ann Wilson HCCA."


To this date I have yet to receive anything from James Clark. In the end I didn't vote for him. If this was an example of how James Clark's campaign treated his potential voters then no wonder he lost!

The letter to the paper also makes a claim about Stevie-v using being elected to the Town Council as being a stepping to the District Council. So what? It is not as though some Conservative Councillors haven't got two or even three Councillor jobs. These are:

Cllr Ursell: St Neots Town Council, Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Council and Hunts DC. Also stood for CCC in 2005.
Cllr Harty: St Neots Town Council, Hunts DC and Cambs CC.
Cllr Farrer: Hunts DC and Cambs CC.
Cllr Catherine Hutton: Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Council, Cambs CC

County Councillor Catherine Hutton was co-opted onto Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Council and then stood for Cambridgeshire County Council. Isn't that what James Clark is accusing Stevie-v of doing. Seems to me James Clark has one rule for his Conservative mates and another rule for the Liberal Democrats.